I recently copped a speeding ticket for exceeding the 70mph limit through the New Forest by what I can only assume was an unmarked vehicle. After two weeks fuming I cooled down and started to rationalise. I don’t think that these public sector jobsworths are aware of the long-term dangers of using such underhand tactics in order to raise revenue. They can say that their only interest is safety and the raising of revenue is incidental, but whatever the reality the perception is that these are purely revenue raising activities and in the modern world perception is reality; truth doesn’t come into it.

What concerns me is the long-term damage caused by these agents of the state. It is a racing certainty that in future people will be less inclined to help the police with the inevitable consequence that some very serious offences will remain unpunished through non-cooperation. When that happens and it gets into the tabloid press as it surely will, buckets of ordure will descend from a great height onto the heads of the safety partnerships, the police, and most of all the politicians, who will all be rushing to be the first to claim Pontius Pilate status. We will all be the losers.